LAW FAILS TO STEM ABUSE OF MIGRANTS, U.S. PANEL REPORTS

By PETER T. KILBORN,

Published: October 22, 1992

Correction Appended

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21—
The law Congress enacted six years ago to combat illegal immigration has done nothing to stop exploitation of migrant farm workers, one of its principal objectives, a Government-appointed, bipartisan commission has found.

The panel, charged with assessing the law's impact on agriculture, confirms earlier reports that illegal immigration continues largely unchecked. The commission attributes the problem to lax enforcement, widespread fraud and the tenacity of people, mostly Mexicans, in fleeing severe unemployment at home for jobs in the United States. Little Incentive to Improve

Congress was both tough and benign in adopting the Immigration Reform and Control Act. To stop illegal immigration, the law established sanctions against employers who hire unauthorized workers, and it granted amnesty to three million workers who could show they had worked at least 90 days in agriculture in the United States in the year ending May 1, 1986. But inadvertently, the law also gave birth to a bustling market in counterfeit documents that has undermined the objectives of the law.

The resulting tide of new illegal immigrants who possess phony documents and who accept substandard working conditions leaves employers with little incentive to improve those conditions. Unless a document is obviously bogus, it is evidence enough to protect an employer from the law's sanctions, ranging from a $100 fine for sloppy bookkeeping to six months in prison. Indeed, if an employer is overly cautious and demands additional proof from a worker who turns out to be legal, the employer risks being charged with discrimination. Less and Less Effective

The law's failings are most apparent in agriculture, the focus of the commission's scrutiny. The migrant and seasonal farm labor force is the easiest place for illegal immigrants to find work, and agriculture, especially labor-intensive fruit and vegetable farming, is the industry most dependent on them.

The commission's study, the most comprehensive look at the impact of the immigration law, will be submitted to Congress early next year.

The final draft of the study says that with fraud increasing the law is becoming less and less effective. Beefing up enforcement and making changes in the law can help slow the immigration.

The study proposes development of a "fraud-proof work authorization document for all persons legally authorized to work in the United States," some- thing that civil libertarians persuaded Congress to leave out of the law on the ground that it smacked of an identity card.

To control illegal immigration, the commission urges Congress to sweep away prerogatives that exempt many farmers from providing their workers with overtime pay, housing with toilets, unemployment insurance, workers' compensation for injuries on the job and the right to form unions. Farms with less than 10 employees, the majority of all farms, also do not have to comply with Federal health and safety laws. Farmers have thus become dependent on people who will accept those conditions, primarily Central Americans.

If the exemptions were phased out, the commission says, legal workers who shun most farm jobs today would vie for the jobs and crowd out illegal immigrants. Created as Concession

Congress created the panel, the Commission on Agricultural Workers, to review the impact of the law as a concession to farming interests who feared that the immigrants granted amnesty would flock to better-paying jobs off the farm and leave them with no one to harvest crops. After five years of research, the commission has completed its work and will meet Nov. 6 for the final review of its findings.

The chairman, Henry J. Voss, who is a peach grower in California and the director of the state's Department of Food and Agriculture, said he expected little more than fine-tuning because he and the 10 other commissioners worked through their differences during the drafting process. "Our findings around the country were generally the same," Mr. Voss said. "There is a continuous stream of illegal immigrants entering the agricultural work force."

The draft, a copy of which was obtained from people close to the commission, says the law has produced none of the major benefits that lawmakers expected, especially improvements in agricultural wages and working conditions. Nor did it bring about the shortage of workers feared by fruit and vegetable growers. "Rather than stabilizing," says the draft, "the national farm labor supply is registering a pronounced surplus."

The commission's proposals will probably face wide opposition from farmers' organizations, and it is surprising in a majority of the 11 members, like Mr. Voss, are current or former farmers or leaders of farm organizations who could have something to lose from expanding Federal regulations to farm labor.

"We will be violently interested in that," said Elizabeth Whitley, assistant director for national affairs at the American Farm Bureau.

The commission found that bigger problems await the nation without vast changes in agricultural policy. Mr. Voss said illegal immigration, in creating hundreds of thousands of jobless or underemployed workers, many with families, affects all taxpayers, including farmers. "The social problems are an issue that have to be addressed," he said.

Correction: October 26, 1992, Monday Because of an editing error, an article on Thursday about the effectiveness of the 1986 immigration law misstated a provision in some copies. Farmers with fewer than 10 employees do not have to comply with Federal health and safety laws.